Yeovil site approved unanimously for 750-home development

The Abbey Manor Group applied back in June 2014 to deliver 765 homes on the Up Mudford urban extension site, which lies between the A359 Mudford Hill and the Wyndham Park estate at the north-eastern edge of the town.

In addition to the new homes, the Up Mudford site will include a community hall, a 65-bed care home, a medical centre, retail outlets, industrial units and an extension to the nearby  Primrose Lane Primary School.

South Somerset District Council provisionally agreed to grant outline planning permission for the scheme in October 2019 – despite hundreds of objections from local residents, who said the plans amounted to “urban sprawl”.

However, the legal agreements for the site were not signed before the onset of the phosphates crisis, meaning the development has been held up until additional mitigation could be agreed.

Five months on from the district council’s decision, Somerset Council’s planning committee south voted unanimously to approve the outline plans – with construction expected to get under way by 2026.

Here’s everything you need to know:

Where is the Up Mudford site?

The Up Mudford site lies at the north-eastern edge of Yeovil, with the vast majority of the land lying within the neighbouring parish of Mudford.

The site is bordered by the Wyndham Park estate and the existing homes on Primrose Lane, with Lyde Road running along a key section of its southern boundary.

The site was allocated within the South Somerset Local Plan as one of the key sites for delivering Yeovil’s new housing up to 2028, along with the Keyford site off the A37 Dorchester Road.

The delivery of both of these sites have been significantly delayed by the ongoing phosphates crisis, with more than 50 major developments in the former South Somerset area needing to secure additional mitigation before work can begin.

The mitigation agreed will cost the developer £1.5m – all of which will have to be paid upfront before a single brick is laid.

Local residents have claimed for many years that developing the Up Mudford site would pose a rise to the public, arguing it would release anthrax spores into the air.

The council said that all tests for anthrax within the soil since 2012 had been negative and any presence of the disease could be mitigated through “appropriate testing, assessment and planning conditions”.

What is proposed for the site?

Of the 765 homes which are planned for this site, 115 will be affordable – the equivalent of 15 per cent.

This is lower than the 35 per cent affordable housing target for any new major development within the former South Somerset area, due to viability concerns surrounding the level of infrastructure needed to be delivered within the site before large numbers of new homes can be put in place.

In addition to the new homes, the Abbey Manor Group will be contributing £6.4m towards the extension of Primrose Lane Primary School, which has been open since 2017.

It will also provided £345,000 towards a new medical centre, with the NHS Somerset integrated care board (ICB) adding in contributions from other local developments to make the project financially viable.

More than £4.7m will be spent on creating new public open space, including sports pitches near the extended school, and funding will be provided towards a bus service which will connect the new homes to the town centre.

Land within the site will be allocated for retail space, employment units and a care home – though some of these may be delivered by third parties, rather than directly by the developer.

How will the new residents access local services?

There will be two main access points to the development – the main entrance on Mudford Hill, via a new roundabout, and a secondary access on Lyde Road which will originally be used for construction traffic.

A spine road will run through the site from Mudford Hill to Livingstone Drive near the primary school, while the Lyde Road link will only serve a small number of the homes eventually delivered within the site.

The council agreed in early-October to allocate £500,000 of community infrastructure levy (CIL) contributions from other development sites towards the delivery of initial walking and cycling links from the main entrance of the site.

To this end, new foot-ways will be created along Lyde Road early in the construction process, meaning new residents won’t have to use the “well-used” grass verges or the muddy paths on the northern side of the road.

A new toucan crossing will be delivered on Lyde Road, between Cavalier Way and Runnymede Road, providing a link to both the new homes and onto Primrose Lane.

The cycle route being created along Lyde Road will eventually link up with the existing paths near Wyndham Park and sections further south being delivered by the council – the aim being to create an unbroken route between the new homes and the town centre via Yeovil Pen Mill railway station and the Yeovil Country Park.

In addition, the council is considering a scheme to upgrade the junction of Mudford Hill and Lyde Road by signalising it, with £330,000 already being set aside for this from the Wyndham Park development.

This upgrade could be delivered at the same time as work begins on 252 new homes on the other side of the A359 (which were approved by the Planning Inspectorate in March).

Delivering these additional homes would necessitate turning the existing T-junction would be turned into a crossroads – and it would be up to the council to decide whether to do this in one go, or to upgrade the T-junction first and add a further arm onto it at a later date.

What do local residents think of the plans?

Stephen Bartlett, from the Friends of Mudford Action Group (FOMAG), was one of several local residents who expressed his displeasure when the planning committee south met in Yeovil on Tuesday afternoon (October 22).

Mr Bartlett (who sits on Mudford Parish Council) said: “Four generations of my family have lived and farmed in Mudford – and this is not a good proposal.

“We are not against development – in fact, we desperately need affordable starter homes for the young.

“I know four young couples in the parish who want to stay and work in the area, but the only affordable accommodation for them is in Radstock and Shepton Mallet.

“The development will irrevocably change the character of the river catchment. We know that Wyndham Park has made flooding quicker and last longer.

“The flood risk assessment is out of date. No assessment has been made of the capacity of the existing ditches into which water from the planned attenuation ponds will drain.

“This is a good example of poor planning at all levels.”

Robin Bowring, who lives in Mudford, said the plans amounted to “little more than informed guesswork”, adding: “The site will be too tall, too dense and the planned mitigation will be insufficient.”

By contrast, John Bishop said the plans met all the requirements of the South Somerset Local Plan and would go some way to addressing Yeovil’s housing crisis.

Mr Bishop works for Charles Bishop Ltd., which has been working with Wyatt Homes to deliver the Brimsmore key site on Thorne Lane.

He said: “In the 55 years my company has operated in Yeovil, the population has almost doubled. Nobody likes change, but Yeovil is still growing.

“This site has been through a Local Plan public inquiry funded by the council, where a planning inspector considered numerous representations from nearby residents.

“This applicant has followed all the rules and done everything correctly.”

Judith Gannon, managing director of the Abbey Manor Group, said: “This will help to arrest the unplanned development which has taken place across the council’s area, and help to reduce the chronic shortfall of housing land supply.

“The extension of Primrose Lane Primary School will be of benefit to the whole area, not just this site.

“We have had some interest in commercial tenants for the neighbourhood centre already, and there will be money for the expansion of GP surgeries in the area.”

What did local councillors say?

Councillor Henry Hobhouse (whose Castle Cary division includes the site) echoed concerns about localised flooding and called on the council to ensure that local residents were prioritised when the affordable homes were built.

Mr Hobhouse was previously a member of the planning committee, but resigned after its last meeting in late-September – having made a number of claims about the council’s inability to deal with the phosphates crisis.

He said: “The existing bridge over the A359 in Mudford floods regularly, because the River Yeo cannot get through the bridge sufficiently to stop the road from being closed.

“It was closed at least three times this winter, and the flooding is regular. I raised this months ago and it has not been addressed at all.

“I asked for a chance for local people to be able to get housing for their children. I understand that when this was taken to our housing department, they didn’t like the idea.

“There are ‘rural exception’ policies in place in North Cadbury, South Cadbury and Sparkford, which I put in place – this is not uncommon.”

Councillor Stephen Page (Somerton) added: “If this development is given the green light, the local people need to see some benefit.”

Councillor Mike Best (Crewkerne) said: “In these mixed use developments, employment always plays second fiddle.

“If we’re getting more people living in these houses, we need to match the employment opportunities.”

Councillor Martin Wale (Chard North) stated: “A number of us sitting on this committee sat through the days of discussion on where housing was going to be allocated in Yeovil within the Local Plan.

“Local people were given every opportunity to come forward and make their various objections at that time.

“Since then, the Local Plan has been unfortunately undermined by the fact that we haven’t built enough houses.

“I understand the objections, but after ten years we’ve at last got this site into a position where we can make a decision.”

After more than two hours’ debate, the committee voted unanimously to approve the plans.

What happens next?

Once the legal agreements between the council and the developer has been signed, the Abbey Manor Group will bring forward a reserved matters application in the new year, laying out the detailed design and layout of the scheme.

Such an application will also indicate the phasing of the development, and the design for the roundabout which will need to be constructed.

If this application is approved by the end of 2025, it is likely that construction could begin some time the following year.